1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and distribution media, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and a method for detecting commercials contained in television broadcasts, and distribution media.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, to meet users"" needs to sequentially view only programs when reproducing recorded television broadcasts, a video recorder (video cassette recorder) generally include a fast forward function to essentially skip over commercials. The fast forward function increases the speed at which magnetic tape within a video cassette is transferred from a supply reel to a take-up reel, to thereby reduce the time necessary to skip over undesired recorded sections of the recorded magnetic tape.
A commercial detecting algorithm used with such a video recorder is based on the characteristics of an absolute or vast majority of commercials as described below. More specifically, a portion in which the following characteristics are recognized is detected as a commercial: a silent segment of about 0.1 to 2.0 seconds exists at the start and end of a commercial; scene change points of an image exist in a silent segment; time required for a commercial is an integer multiple of 15 seconds; and commercials are broadcast when the sound multiplex mode is a stereo mode.
In television broadcasting in North America, commercials are detected based on the absolute condition that a black frame or blue frame exists between a program and a commercial.
Accordingly, according to the conventional commercial detecting algorithm, there has been a problem in that commercials not containing the above described characteristics, for example, such as commercials in the sound multiplex mode of monophonic mode, cannot be detected.
Also, according to the conventional commercial detecting algorithm, there has been a problem in that, if the above described characteristics were contained within a program, a portion of the program would be detected as a commercial.
Furthermore, there has been a problem in that commercials cannot be detected because of change or abolition of the commercial characteristics having been used in the conventional algorithm, for example, such as an integer multiple of 14 seconds as time required for a commercial, or abolition of the insertion of a black frame or blue frame in North American television broadcasts.
According to the conventional commercial detecting algorithm, to detect a silent segment, an average level of sound at a fixed segment is found and the segment is detected as a silent segment when the average level is below a predetermined threshold value. For this reason, there has been a problem in that the accuracy of detecting a silent segment differs between a bad reception state of television broadcasting, namely, a weak field with a bad S/N ratio of sound signal, and other than weak fields, with the result that commercials cannot be correctly detected.
According to the conventional commercial detecting algorithm, time required for a commercial is measured by counting frames, assuming that about 30 frames are produced per second. However, in actual broadcasting, since an error of about several frames arises, a margin corresponding to the error is provided for a threshold value for determining a required time. Accordingly, there has been a problem in that commercials are incorrectly detected or are not detected due to the margin.
Moreover, although advertising spots of television stations broadcast for about five seconds between a commercial and a program are like commercials to viewers, there has been a problem in that such advertising spots cannot be detected because they do not have the above described characteristics. The present invention has been made in view of such a situation.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method, apparatus and computer program for correctly detecting commercials contained in television broadcasts.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce or eliminate the need to view commercials when reproducing previously recorded television broadcasts.
It is a feature of the present invention to stop recording of a television broadcast when a commercial is detected.
It is an additional feature of the present invention to instead index commercials when recording a television broadcast in order to permit the high speed fast forwarding through such commercials, yet preserve the ability to view such commercials according to the wishes of a viewer.
It is an advantage of the present invention to reduce the amount of time a viewer must spend in viewing a desired television program.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to reduce the amount of recording media storage space necessary to record a desired television program, by not recording commercials interspersed with the desired television program.
It is yet another advantage of the present invention to allow a viewer utilize indexing of commercials to permit the viewing of such commercials when desired by the viewer.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal, including means for receiving the television signal, means for detecting scene changes from said television signal, and means for detecting a commercial message according to a frequency of the scene changes.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal, including a tuner for receiving the television signal, a first detector for detecting scene changes from said television signal, and a second detector for detecting a commercial message according to a frequency of scene changes.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for processing a television signal, including the steps of receiving the television signal, detecting scene changes from said television signal, and detecting a commercial message according to a frequency of the scene changes.
According to yet another aspect of the invention there is provided a program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for processing a television signal, the method steps including receiving the television signal, detecting scene changes from said television signal, and detecting a commercial message according to a frequency of scene changes.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal having a image signal and a sound signal, including means for determining a threshold indicating a silence in said sound signal, means for detecting a silent segment in the sound signal plurality of contiguous scenes based upon said threshold, means for detecting scene changes in said image signal, means for detecting commercial candidate segments based upon the detected silent segment, a frequency of the detected scene changes and a sound signal multiplex mode signal, and means for detecting which of the commercial candidate segments is a commercial based upon a rate of silence of the sound signal and a repetition of the image signal.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal having a image signal and a sound signal, including a determiner for determining a threshold indicating a silence in said sound signal, a first detector detecting a silent segment in the sound signal plurality of contiguous scenes based upon said threshold, a second detector for detecting scene changes in said image signal, a third detector for detecting commercial candidate segments based upon the detected silent segment, a frequency of the detected scene changes and a sound signal multiplex mode signal, and a fourth detector for detecting which of the commercial candidate segments is a commercial based upon a rate of silence of the sound signal and a repetition of the image signal.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for processing a television signal having a image signal and a sound signal, including the steps of determining a threshold indicating a silence in said sound signal, detecting a silent segment in the sound signal plurality of continuous scenes based upon said threshold, detecting scene changes in said image signal, detecting commercial candidate segments based upon the detected silent segment, a frequency of the detected scene changes and a sound signal multiplex mode signal, and detecting which of the commercial candidate segments is a commercial based upon a rate of silence of the sound signal and a repetition of the image signal.
According to yet a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for processing a television signal, the method steps including determining a threshold indicating a silence in said sound signal, detecting a silent segment in the sound signal plurality of continuous scenes based upon said threshold, detecting scene changes in said image signal, detecting commercial candidate segments based upon the detected silent segment, a frequency of the detected scene changes and a sound signal multiplex mode signal, and detecting which of the commercial candidate segments is a commercial based upon a rate of silence of the sound signal and a repetition of the image signal.
These and other objects, features and advantages will become apparent when considered with reference to the following description and the accompanying drawings.